rêver

See also: rever

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French resver, from Old French resver (“to consider, reflect, be delirious”), of uncertain origin. The Trésor de la langue française informatisé links it back either to an unattested *esver (“to wander”) or to Latin *reexvadō, from re- +‎ ex- +‎ evadō. The Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch links it back to *reexvagus, hence the same as the first proposal by the Trésor de la langue française informatisé. Compare Old English rǣswan (“to consider, suspect, conjecture”), of similar form and meaning.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛ.ve/ ~ /ʁe.ve/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

rêver

1. to dream

   Synonym: songer

   • 2018, Zaz, Plume:

     Échappée d’une couverture, je rêvais de l’aventure

     Escaped from a blanket, I dreamed of adventure

Conjugation

Conjugation of rêver (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	rêver
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	rêvant /ʁɛ.vɑ̃/ or /ʁe.vɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		rêvé /ʁɛ.ve/ or /ʁe.ve/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	rêve /ʁɛv/	rêves /ʁɛv/	rêve /ʁɛv/	rêvons /ʁɛ.vɔ̃/ or /ʁe.vɔ̃/	rêvez /ʁɛ.ve/ or /ʁe.ve/	rêvent /ʁɛv/
	imperfect	rêvais /ʁɛ.vɛ/ or /ʁe.vɛ/	rêvais /ʁɛ.vɛ/ or /ʁe.vɛ/	rêvait /ʁɛ.vɛ/ or /ʁe.vɛ/	rêvions /ʁɛ.vjɔ̃/ or /ʁe.vjɔ̃/	rêviez /ʁɛ.vje/ or /ʁe.vje/	rêvaient /ʁɛ.vɛ/ or /ʁe.vɛ/
	past historic2	rêvai /ʁɛ.ve/ or /ʁe.ve/	rêvas /ʁɛ.va/ or /ʁe.va/	rêva /ʁɛ.va/ or /ʁe.va/	rêvâmes /ʁɛ.vam/ or /ʁe.vam/	rêvâtes /ʁɛ.vat/ or /ʁe.vat/	rêvèrent /ʁɛ.vɛʁ/ or /ʁe.vɛʁ/
	future	rêverai /ʁɛ.vʁe/ or /ʁe.vʁe/	rêveras /ʁɛ.vʁa/ or /ʁe.vʁa/	rêvera /ʁɛ.vʁa/ or /ʁe.vʁa/	rêverons /ʁɛ.vʁɔ̃/ or /ʁe.vʁɔ̃/	rêverez /ʁɛ.vʁe/ or /ʁe.vʁe/	rêveront /ʁɛ.vʁɔ̃/ or /ʁe.vʁɔ̃/
	conditional	rêverais /ʁɛ.vʁɛ/ or /ʁe.vʁɛ/	rêverais /ʁɛ.vʁɛ/ or /ʁe.vʁɛ/	rêverait /ʁɛ.vʁɛ/ or /ʁe.vʁɛ/	rêverions /ʁɛ.və.ʁjɔ̃/ or /ʁe.və.ʁjɔ̃/	rêveriez /ʁɛ.və.ʁje/ or /ʁe.və.ʁje/	rêveraient /ʁɛ.vʁɛ/ or /ʁe.vʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	rêve /ʁɛv/	rêves /ʁɛv/	rêve /ʁɛv/	rêvions /ʁɛ.vjɔ̃/ or /ʁe.vjɔ̃/	rêviez /ʁɛ.vje/ or /ʁe.vje/	rêvent /ʁɛv/
	imperfect2	rêvasse /ʁɛ.vas/ or /ʁe.vas/	rêvasses /ʁɛ.vas/ or /ʁe.vas/	rêvât /ʁɛ.va/ or /ʁe.va/	rêvassions /ʁɛ.va.sjɔ̃/ or /ʁe.va.sjɔ̃/	rêvassiez /ʁɛ.va.sje/ or /ʁe.va.sje/	rêvassent /ʁɛ.vas/ or /ʁe.vas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	rêve /ʁɛv/	—	rêvons /ʁɛ.vɔ̃/ or /ʁe.vɔ̃/	rêvez /ʁɛ.ve/ or /ʁe.ve/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• rêve (noun)

Further reading

• “rêver”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Etymology and history of “endêver”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• verre